Management consulting remains one of the most popular career paths for people at business school. But is an MBA essential if you want to move into this industry?

INSEAD, which is very strong in this sector, reports that 39% of its full-time MBAs went into consulting after graduating in 2011. MBA programs endow you with a practical, working understanding (rather than complete mastery) of the gamut of business functions: finance, marketing, operations, organisational behaviour. It’s the big-picture mindset that a management consultant needs and an MBA is a rubber stamp that you have the requisite toolkit.

Nicky Winch, head of recruiting for CapGemini UK says:

“The MBA helps to demonstrate an intellectual and analytical capability and along with relevant experience, can help make a candidate stand out against others.”

MBA programs also provide you with practical experience. Most require their students to complete at least one, if not several consulting projects for corporate, start-up and non-profit clients.

Here are a few examples from BusinessBecause.com of people who have successfully used an MBA to break into management consulting

Tom Park studied law at McGill and public policy at Harvard. Between 2004 and 2007 he worked in the International Criminal Court in The Hague, the OSCE Mission in Pristina, Kosovo and the UN Khmer Rouge Tribunal in Cambodia. Previously he was an associate at McCarthy Tetrault, Canada’s largest law firm. A two-year MBA at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth enabled him to land an internship, and then a permanent role at McKinsey in Montreal. He is currently based in Dakar, Senegal working on a global health project.

Italian Fabio Gastaldi holds an MSc in Electronics and Computer Engineering. He worked for telecoms multinational Ericsson as a Solutions Integrator for four

years, before joining the MBA program at Spain’s IE Business School in order to revive his stalling career. Fabio says he got a job at Bain &#38; Co. Through the network he gained on the IE MBA, which helped him identify roles suitable for his combined Engineering and MBA qualifications, a sought-after combination in the industry.

“It was an Italian I met during the MBA that linked me up with Bain’s HR manager inItaly. I got invited to the interview then that’s it”, he says.

INSEAD grad Ioan Carpus had had a varied career before he embarked on an MBA. He qualified as a lawyer in Romania, and then worked as a web developer and in an e-learning